Obama takes his hat off to JFK in presidential race

February 12, 2007|By Patrick T. Reardon, Tribune staff reporter

SPRINGFIELD — If Barack Obama is still thawing out, he can blame Jack Kennedy.

For more than half an hour, the junior senator from Illinois endured the brutal, bitter cold Saturday (temperature in the midteens, wind chill in the single digits) without gloves and without a hat, as he stood outside the Old State Capitol to announce his Democratic presidential run.

Nearly a half-century ago, President John F. Kennedy set the style for aspiring politicians by eschewing a hat in order to emphasize his youth and vigor. And Obama, like generations of American candidates for offices modest and grand ever since, was simply following JFK's lead as he told an estimated crowd of 15,000 that he would join the race for the White House. (No talk of throwing his hat in the ring, however.)

The idea, of course, was to look attractive -- to provide an image that would resonate with potential supporters.

That was also the reason for the seemingly odd setup on the grounds of the Old State Capitol.

You wouldn't know it from looking at most of the photographs and video from the event, but in making his address, Obama wasn't speaking to the crowd but was facing a multitiered riser on which dozens of television cameras were situated. Those who had made their way to Springfield, whether from near or far, stood painfully shivering off to Obama's left, not so much an audience to his speech, but bystanders.

Of course, just as an event such as this is crafted to produce images for future use, those who come to stand in the crowd are likely to be attracted as much or more by the celebrity of the speaker as by his politics.

Corey Copeland, a 30-year-old mental-health professional from Galesburg, drove 2 1/2 hours to hear the speech even though he's not sure if he'll eventually support Obama. He wanted, he said, to hear more from the candidate about universal health care. But Copeland also wanted to see a star: "He'll be our next Kennedy."

Another crowd member open to but not committed to Obama was Cecilia Thompson, 18, a senior at Springfield High School. She said she was at the speech mainly to be a part of history.

"It's not very often that a senator makes his presidential announcement in your hometown," she said.

Anthony Smith, a 30-year-old Springfield waiter who has served Obama meals on occasion, is a strong supporter of the candidate as a fellow African-American.

But Smith also came for the scene.

"This is like being in California with the red carpet," he said.

And he added, "I'm just excited to be here at this moment -- that I can tell my grandkids or my kids that I was here on this day."